CULTURAL-GASTRONOMIC GIS-BASED ROUTES FOR PLANNING EFFICIENT URBAN TOURISM

Gaziantep, with its gastronomy tourism, cultural heritage, and historical texture, is one of Turkey's most important tourism destinations. The study emphasizes that more effective and optimized tourism routes can be created in Gaziantep with GIS tools and analysis among its tourist attractions. These technologies can contribute to the balanced distribution of tourist density, reduction of environmental impacts, and improvement of transportation infrastructure. In planning tourism routes, the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and network analysis enables spatial analyses within the tourism sector, establishing connections between tourist destinations, optimizing visitor movements, and ensuring more efficient planning of tourism activities. Network analysis offers significant solutions such as evaluating transportation networks, route optimization, and managing congestion. In the study, route planning was conducted for tourist locations in Gaziantep, both by vehicle and walking. A total of 5 route scenarios were created for one-day plans. Within the scope of these scenarios, locations such as breakfast, museums, cultural heritage sites, archaeological areas, and zoos were evaluated as tourist routes and planned to be offered to visitors. Daily routes ranged between 26 minutes and 163 minutes and between 49.60 km and 336.26 km in length. Route scenarios were planned for considering tourists' decisions based on car rentals, and travel plans. In conclusion, GIS stands out as a strategic tool in tourism management, offering significant opportunities to ensure the sustainability of tourism in cities with high tourism potential like Gaziantep. The wider adoption of such technologies will enhance Gaziantep's tourism competitiveness both locally and internationally, providing substantial economic and cultural contributions to the region.